Page 95 of Vicious Temptation
He cuts me off sharply. “What I want is for you to obey, svoloch. And if you do not, or if you try to run, or if you try to call anyone for help or to warn them, well—” He holds up his phone, and my heart freezes in my chest. I realize that I’ve never truly known fear, until this moment.
It’s a picture of my kitchen table. Agnes, Bella, and my children are all sitting there, guns aimed at them. And sitting at the head, as if it’s his house and not mine, is Igor Lasilov.
I know what this is all about, at that moment. And my heart sinks like a stone, fear bleeding through me, knowing that I failed to take this as seriously as I should have.
I’ve never stepped wrong, in all my years of dealing with these kinds of men. I’ve always trusted my intuition, and I’ve always been careful. But this once, I’ve seen only what I wanted to see.
And now, I’ll pay for it. Someone will—and it will take everything I can manage to keep it from being those I love.
“They will take your children apart, piece by piece, if you do not obey,” the blond Russian continues. “So follow us, Mr. Esposito.”
I have no choice. I nod tightly, anger vibrating through every part of me, making me wonder if I’ll even be able to drive. It’s only the need to get home, the need to make sure they’re given no excuse to act on their threats, that keeps me going. Keeps me functioning. I slide into my car, and I follow him—his black car in front, and two more behind me, blocking me in. Watching me. Making sure that I don’t disobey.
My feet feel leaden as I get out in front of my house, fear weighing me down. Slowing me, despite the fact that in this moment, I need to be quicker than ever, more present, more able to adapt. The threat to my children is nearly crippling, as they knew it would be. But I have to move past that.
The Russians flank me, following me up to the front door, and I try to focus, to center my thoughts, to determine how I’m going to keep this from going horribly, heartbreakingly awry.
How I’m going to save my family, from the thing I always feared the most.
Bella sees me the instant I walk in. “Gabriel,” she gasps, and Cecelia and Danny look up. They start to leap up, but Bella grabs them, and I shake my head. Cecelia bursts into tears again, and it feels like my heart is being ripped out of my chest. Like I’m looking at it, raw and bleeding in front of me, and I have no idea if I can keep this from turning into my worst nightmare.
I thought I knew what loss felt like, what hurt was, what the worst thing I could ever experience was. I never knew just how bad it could get, before this moment.
“I’m sorry,” Bella whispers, her eyes filling with tears, her entire body starting to shake, and I look at Igor, moving to stand directly opposite him. Between him, and Agnes, and Bella, and my children.
“What do you want, Lasilov?” I ask flatly, the lack of emotion in it startling me, compared to the riot of fear and anger that I feel inside. He smiles, as if we were having a polite conversation, and nothing more.
“You have a choice, Esposito.” His grin broadens, and I can tell he’s taking pleasure in this. It makes me want to kill him—the second time in my life I’ve ever wanted to kill a man.
The first was when Bella told me what happened to her. And now—this.
“You can give Bella back to me,” Igor continues, his hands folded in front of him. “For retribution for my son, to do with as I please.”
“Absolutely not,” I say automatically, without a second thought. “I refuse.”
Igor’s smile never falters. He almost looks pleased, as if this were the outcome he hoped for. An excuse to do violence.
“Then,” he says, his gaze locked evenly with mine, “then everyone you love will die.”
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Vicious Devotion
Chapter One: Bella
Then everyone you love will die.
Igor’s voice keeps ringing in my ears, repeating over and over. A threat that I have no reason to doubt he’ll follow through on. This is a man who ordered a church full of people locked inside to be murdered–mafia families, not only the men, but their wives and children, all there to attend my wedding.
I learned, that day, that time slows down when your world is falling apart. That for a moment, everything is in sharp relief, every word and action crystallizing until suddenly it all comes crashing violently down, like an implosion. I remember every terrifying second of that day. I wish I didn’t.
And now, it’s happening again.
It feels like time slows down again. I hear Igor tell Gabriel to give me to him. To return me to the Bratva for retribution, and then Gabriel and his family will be left alone. I hear Gabriel’s refusal. Igor’s threat. And terror washes through me, cold and sharp, slicing at me until I feel weak with it, like I’m bleeding out.